I have no idea where to start. Never worked out before. All I know to do is normal pushups and sit-ups. I don't know anything about sets or anything like that. I can do 18 pushups straight, and 40-60 situps. What exercises I missing to get a complete full body workout? Tips to improve cardio? Any goals I should set for myself at 120 pounds at 16? How many sets of exercises? Arigato!
What are your goals - do you want to get stronger, work cardio/conditioning or both? Do you have access to any equipment? How often can you train and do you do any other sports/physical activity? There are a wide variety of bodyweight exercises you can do (squats, pistols, planks, planche progressions, pull ups etc) but which you choose and what sets/reps you choose will depend on your goals.
You should add pull ups into your routine, and there are about a million variations that you can do. I am not sure about other exercises, because I am also interested in learning more. For cardio you should be doing a HIIT routine. That is basically where you sprint for 30 seconds and then walk for 30 seconds, and you do that for about 20 minutes straight. I hope that makes sense, because I am hungover.
I'm not very knowledgeable, but you start with something and progress to increase the difficulty and resistance. What you have to start with is up to you. We can give you exercises, routines,etc, but it depends on you if your comfortable with it. Basically, everyone is different and a certain exercise/routine may not work with you, so listen to your body. Now since that is out of the way, onto some of the informative stuff. Bodyweight stuff, from my limited experience, tends to get creative since its harder to add resistance, compared to weights. Gymnasts, for example, put themselves in mechanically disadvantageous positions, such as the iron cross, to give themselves a bigger challenge. Also, the puch up you listed has many variations, targetting different parts of the body or giving the person a greater/tougher challenge. For example, you have plyometric (like clapping push ups), diamond, wide, one handed, hindu, etc. Here are a few links for you to check out, which contain a list of some of the bodyweight exercises you can do. http://jasonferruggia.com/top-20-bodyweight-exercises-for-building-muscle-strength/ http://www.unique-bodyweight-exercises.com/ http://www.liveawesome.com/public/department58.cfm Make sure you can do the exercises you choose, and don't go zero to sixty. Listen to your body. Also, always check with a medical professional to get a clean bill of health before trying anything strenuous. To address your situation directly, you listed push ups and sit ups. I personally myself "like" to have separate days for each part of the body, though you can entire body workouts per certain days if that floats your boat. Example: Monday: Upperbody Tuesday: Cardio Wednesday: Core Thursday: Cardio Friday: Legs Saturday + Sunday: Rest days Your missing a lot to be honest. Some examples of exercises you could do to achieve a "full body" workout would be: Upper body: Push ups, Chin ups, Inverted Body weight rows, pull ups, static push up hold, etc Core: Crunches, Planks, Reverse crunches, Flutter kicks, Superman holds, etc Legs: Lunges, Wall sits, squats, calf raises, Bulgarian split squats, pistols, reverse leg lifts, etc Not my forte, but you should just jog/run, and push yourself a little harder every time. If your up for something grueling you can try some HIIT, though it's not for everyone. Fartlek works quite splendidly as well. Just a word of advice would be to have proper running shoes and proper running form to avoid knee/ankle issues in the future. To be honest, this is up to you. What I did was do an exercise till I couldn't anymore, take my number of reps, cut in half, and take the new number and do it for 3 sets. I also used the pyramid method as mentioned a bove. So good luck on your exercise adventure, you can do it!! *waits for another more knowledgeable MAP member to elaborate or debunk me*
Frodocious: I want to develop my cardio training and develop muscle. I can train everyday if need be, and I do not play a sport(at least right now). I do not have any access to anything except dumbells. So any set of exercises that hits all of the muscle groups without equipment would be best.
If you want to develop muscle, you also have to pay attention to your diet as well. make sure you eat clean, get the nutrients required, and have a lot of protein (k, not like a crapload, but you'll need a little more then usual).
Done properly, you should be breathing through another orifice entirely. If I were you, I'd add pullups, some kind of movement for your back and some sort of leg movement. Have a look here for more exercises: http://www.trainforstrength.com/
bodyweight training is as simple or as hard as you want it to be, Standard pushups can be progressed to offset pushups, hands in, hands out, diamond, handstand, one arm, clap... chin ups/pullups can be progressed to commando pullups, alternate hands, side to side, one arm, excentric, clap... Squats progressed to hindu, pistol, jump... There is plenty of variation for any level of ability to progress to.
